I have been traveling quite a bit for work and took sleep deprivation to a whole new level this weekend at Ragnar Cape Cod.  On Thursday evening I flew from Houston to Boston.  Shaun picked me up from the airport a little after midnight and we checked into a hotel nearby.  After about 5 hours of sleep, we were up and headed towards Hull for the start of Ragnar Cape Cod.  I have never run in a relay before (with the exception of One Run For Boston) and I was looking forward to the experience.  I have participated in lots of races — mostly running races and triathlons — but most of these don’t rise to the level of an experience.  Ragnar was different.  It was 28 hours of pretty much non-stop going (other than 2 hours of not great sleep on a hill trying to stay warm with the ridiculous wind whipping around).  I’m pretty confident that I don’t do well with no sleep, but this weekend proved that I can do really well if I have the support of those around me.

I’m not sure I can put the experience into words, so I’m trying with pictures:

Before the start in Hull — Anne, Me, Rebecca, Ali, Amy and Melissa.
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 The 10:00 a.m. start under gray skies.  Most of the race would be cool and rainy (we struggled with shivering and blue lips).  The sun did come out for the finish mid-day on Saturday.   

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Ali (who ran a marathon the weekend before) booking it into transition #1.

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Anne taking off for stage #2.  Claimed she was going to “run slow” yet put down 7 min / miles for all of her legs.  

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Ali checking off out very first box on the Ragnar Van (after stopping to take a selfie) — if I hear the Selfie song one more time I may pummel Shaun.  

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 The hand off between legs 3 and 4.  Love the fresh green.  We were run-wear opposites.  No one told me my first stage would have 500 feet of climbing over a 10K.  

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The handoff between 6 and 7.  Our first stop at the beach (Duxbury).  We were freezing.  

 

 

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Ready for night running (and stages 13 through 18).  I ran in the dark.  Twice.  And did not fall.  I also learned that headlamps hurt my head and I lost the good blinking butt light (it must have bounced off my ample behind).  

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Rebecca finishing her final leg.  She was rather happy to pass on the baton to me, especially after I tormented her 100 times that morning by reminding her over and over again that I could stay wrapped in a sleeping bag because she had to run 9.4 miles before I had to do anything that morning.  

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The handoff from stage 28 to 29.  I was very concerned with my watch.  Stage 28 was a great stage for me.  I found a running friend, we held 8 flats and picked off lots of runners.

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Finishing up stage 30.  I am always happiest when I run (and especially when I’m running well).  I haven’t strung together this many good runs in a row in forever, so the weekend was super special from a running confidence point of view as well.  

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Marking off the final stages.

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Legs up the Shaun (Shaun was a rockstar all weekend taking care of all of us).  

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My map of Massachusetts.  I was so proud of this drawing.  

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 We don’t follow directions well at all (for example I posted hundreds of pictures and used the wrong Ragnar hash tag for all of them).     

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Kelly Burns Gallagher

mccarter english employment litigator / oiselle team runner / coeur sports triathlete / sonic endurance coach & race director / witsup.com writer / dartmouth '02 / emorylaw '05

11 Comments

Victoria · May 13, 2014 at 7:00 am

Oh my gosh it looks like you all had an amazing time! I can’t wait to run with you in 2015! 🙂

Stacey · May 13, 2014 at 7:45 am

Sooooo much fun!!! I wish I had the chance to hang with you a little longer on this trip, but I definitely look forward to meeting up again in New England! Thanks for all your wonderful enthusiasm and photos this weekend! 🙂

erin · May 13, 2014 at 7:52 am

So fun! Looks like you had a blast! I’ve done Ragnar twice (pre social media days… may have even been the first year of the Great River one) and seeing your pics make me want to run it again. Coeur team for sure next year 🙂

Pamela Robbins · May 13, 2014 at 9:04 am

Looks like so much fun! I have never done a relay race before. Some of my friends did Ragnar with Team Hole in the Wall, the Team that I run with a lot! Great photos!

Lindsay Hazard · May 13, 2014 at 9:31 am

SO MUCH FUN! It was great to briefly meet you this weekend 🙂

Paulette · May 13, 2014 at 3:48 pm

Love it! I’m bummed I couldn’t do Cape Cod with you all and it looks amazing. I want to run there sometime. The photo of you finishing around leg 30 is gorgeous, you look so happy!

Mer @ ScootaDoot · May 14, 2014 at 8:21 am

Great pictures, Kelly! Looks like you all had a blast. And man, that map is crazy impressive!

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